I was at the ‘Top Chef: Wisconsin’ cheese festival. Here’s a peek behind the scenes

On Episode 3 of “Top Chef: Wisconsin,” the contestants were taken to The Cupola Barn in Oconomowoc to compete in the show’s first-ever cheese festival.

I have a full recap of the episode if you’d like an overview, but I have so much more to spill beyond what you see on the show. I was one of the 100 guests at the cheese festival, I tasted (almost) every dish and I was right there feeling the heat of the competition (and the summer sun) throughout the daylong shoot in the countryside.

You won’t see me in the episode beyond some background shots on camera, but I was there to witness it all and cast my vote for my favorite dishes (more on that below). Have you ever been curious what it’s like to be a guest at a “Top Chef” taping? Read on for my behind-the-scenes takeaways.

It was even hotter than it looked

I can’t stress enough how hot it felt that day. We taped midday in late August, and temperatures reached around 90 degrees. The picturesque side yard surrounded by cornfields was gorgeous, but there was very little shade to be had anywhere, including at the chef stations, of which only a few were equipped with sun umbrellas.

I couldn’t imagine cooking under the hot sun all day! The poor chefs looked exhausted, and the crew was doing everything they could to keep them loaded up with sunscreen and water.

There’s a part in the episode when Kaleena is talking to the diners, saying, “Please vote for me, I worked my butt off!” And she did. They all did, but I could tell the sun was really getting to her. In fact, I flagged down a crew member to bring over some sunscreen when she told me she could use it. She earned that top-three placement.

Everyone, including the guests, was provided unlimited water, which we chugged throughout the day. We were also given two drink tickets we could use on beer, wine or hard seltzer.

Speaking of, I had to laugh when the guests were ushered into the yard before the cheese festival began. A crew member asked that we try to spread out and not all hit the bar at the same time. Smash cut to dozens of thirsty Wisconsinites heading straight to the bar, drink tickets burning a hole in our pockets. I think the bar was drank dry that day.

We had about 3 hours to try everyone’s food

Guests were told to park at a nearby church, then around 11 a.m. were taken in shuttle buses to the Mapleton Community Center across the street from the Cupola Barn, where we were in holding for about an hour before we could walk over.

We checked in, signed non-disclosure agreements, and were given blackout stickers to put on our phones’ camera lenses so we couldn’t take photos throughout the day. I was a little sad I couldn’t document my experiences on “Top Chef,” but it’s a top-secret set for a reason. Absolutely no insider intel was to be shared until the episode aired.

The crew explained the events of the day, telling us they might pull us to the side to talk about the dishes for the camera (there were hidden microphones in the little floral arrangements on some of the tables — that's how the show picks up those “candid” conversations between diners). I was pulled once to stand in the background of the judges deliberating while I shared my thoughts with new friends I’d made in the sign-in line earlier in the day.

I didn’t make the cut, but there is a moment when you can catch me tapped out from the heat, sitting under a tree while checking my email, resigned to the fact that I could not possibly eat another bite of cheese if I tried.

We had around three hours to taste our way through the chefs’ stations. Plenty of time, for sure, but people started slowing down about an hour or so into the taping. Like I said, it was hot!

Some folks found a shady spot under a tree, others relaxed at picnic tables, mixing and mingling across the yard. We were allowed to talk to all of the chefs as they were serving and most of them were as upbeat as they could be, excited to explain their dishes or chat about the restaurants they work in back home.

In fact, the excitement began before the competition did. Michelle was whooping it up at her station, having a blast and encouraging the guests to cheer and get loud for the festival ahead. She seems just as kind and bubbly as she appears on the show.

We were also told we could interact with any of the judges while they weren’t on camera. Most folks kept their distance, but I was pleasantly surprised with how gracious the judges were with guests, taking time to shake hands and say “hello” during the downtime when diner votes were tallied.

And, yes, all the judges are absolutely stunning in real life. Major kudos go out to the hair and makeup team working that day, because not a hair was out of place or a bead of sweat visible. And they were outside in the sun just as much as the rest of us.

Maybe it helped that judge Tom Colicchio was going barefoot for some of the day — but I don’t blame him. We were all trying to find ways to beat the heat.

And, speaking of judges, I was elated to see chef Dane Baldwin of The Diplomat stepping in as a guest judge for the episode. He looked like a natural walking around all day with the judges, tasting and deliberating. You could tell he was taking it seriously.

Filming for the guests wrapped around 3:30 or 4 p.m., and all 100 of us slowly shuffled in line to shuttle back to our cars — and I was on the last shuttle. I have a whole new appreciation for the contestants and judges for getting through those long days with a smile.

It was, in fact, too much cheese to eat in one day

So ... about that cheese. There was a lot of it. Of course, it was a cheese festival! In the episode, host Kristen Kish said, “Maybe it’s an unpopular opinion, but it’s just too much cheese.”

“Get out of Wisconsin!” Colicchio replied. But about an hour in, I was with Kish.

I could only make it through nine of the 13 dishes. I feel bad for not making it to every station, but the extreme heat paired with the heavy cheese and fried preparation for most of the dishes was a recipe for disaster, even though I really enjoyed most of the dishes I tried.

I feel bad for the chefs who made some version of croquettes. I’m sure they’d be lovely on a cooler day, but many of us in the crowd were completely done with eating fried cheese at that point, so those who brought brightness to their dishes were so welcome at the end of the day.

My favorite dishes at the “Top Chef: Wisconsin” cheese festival

The top three chefs at the challenge were Kaleena, Michelle and Dan, and they all received top scores from me, too.

Kaleena’s mac and cheese, using Sartori’s BellaVitano Merlot cheese, was surprisingly light, and I was wild for the sauce she made using the cheese’s merlot-washed brine. It’s one of my favorite cheeses, so I was happy to see she pulled it off in her dish. It was such a smart representation of the variety of cheese.

Michelle, who won the challenge, made a beautiful potato and Pleasant Ridge Reserve fritter, but she really impressed me with her collard greens, so vibrant-tasting with a garlicky twang. Hers was the first station I visited and, throughout that whole day, I kept thinking back to how much I liked her dish.

And of course I was going to go for Dan’s gnocchi (labeled as potato dumplings on our score cards). But I promise I wasn’t being a homer — even folks I talked to who weren’t aware of him from his Milwaukee restaurants loved his dish. That frothy sauce using Door Artisan Cheese Company’s Sancho Cruz Mexican-Style Manchego was so airy and and light. The olive tapenade added a note of saltiness that balanced the dish well.

They weren’t the top vote-getters, but I also really liked Rasika’s Dunbarton Blue cheese rice cake dish with chicken curry (so different, and the hazelnuts added a nice crunch) and Savannah’s Oaxaca cheese quesadilla (the whipped avocado and fresh corn salsa were much appreciated on the hot day).

As far as the least favorites go, I won’t kick them when they’re down, but there’s a reason they received the fewest votes. They were working against a lot of tough odds and just didn’t deliver.

Dan got a lot of local love from the crowd

This was the first taping I attended while “Top Chef” was in town, and the first time I realized Dan was a contestant. I’d been optimistic that the show would cast a local chef, so I kept an eagle eye out as I scanned the chef stations.

Dan was set up at the far end of the yard and I spotted him right away. So exciting, but it's been tough to keep a secret for all this time. There was a heavy rotation of guests approaching him, chatting him up and wishing him well. When he walked away from his station at the end of competition, a horde of fans nearby gave him a rowdy round of applause.

“You know how much I’m going to hear about this later...” he quipped.

But he kept his focus as he was cooking. “I’ve made gnocchi so many times before, but in this competition, something like this can make it feel like your first time,” he said while I was at his station.

He landed in the top three, so I can’t say for sure how many of those votes were hometown bias, but his dish was absolutely delicious enough to merit its own success. It received my second-highest score of the day and the judges raved about it on the episode, as well.

We were told we couldn’t go back for seconds, but even after I was feeling stuffed, I’d be happy to try his dish again.

Rachel Bernhard joined the Journal Sentinel as dining critic in June 2023. She’s been busy exploring the Milwaukee area food scene to share her favorite finds with readers along the way. Like all Journal Sentinel reporters, she buys all meals, accepts no gifts and is independent of all establishments she covers.

What should she cover next? Contact her at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter at @rachelbernhard or on Instagram at @rach.eats.mke.

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: A peek behind the scenes at the ‘Top Chef: Wisconsin’ cheese festival